糖心破解版

This encyclopedia is like a guidebook that allows you to walk through a wide and deep forest of the English language with the author while reading easy-to-understand explanations supported by in-depth knowledge. When reading it, you can travel across eras, disciplines, and even regions.
 
Although the original is one of the best-selling encyclopedias on the English language, it had never been translated into any other language since its first edition was published in 1995. This book is the first such attempt at translation. In addition to the usual reasons that make translation difficult, the samples of English expressions used in this book contain many instances of colloquial expressions, non-standard usage, and word play, which are challenging for non-English speakers to understand correctly and often difficult to translate. In fact, the author states in the preface to the Japanese edition that he once thought the work was “untranslatable” (p. i). The Japanese edition, however, is both accurate and readable, which led the author to comment, “Thanks to the expertise and scrupulous attention to detail of the wonderful Japanese translating team, I am happy to say that I was wrong” (p. i).
 
I was involved in translating Part II of the book, which deals with English vocabulary. This part documents, for example, the use of adjectives such as “flat” and “stringy,” which have no inherent relationship to taste, to describe the taste of wine; so-called instances of “doublespeak,” in which an explosion was called “energetic disassembly” and a fire was referred to as “rapid oxidation” in the context of the incident at Three Mile Island; and the origin of place names such as “Mississippi,” which means “big river” in Chippewa (an Indigenous North American language), and “Vermont,” which means “green mountain” in French.
 
This book presents these and other interesting stories backed by the author’s extensive knowledge in a style that is accessible to general readers. You open the book to any page and feel like taking a stroll, or you can focus on an area you are interested in and explore it in depth. It would be a great honor for us translators if the book strengthened your interest in the English language.
 

(Written by ITO Takane, Project professor / Professor emeritus, Center for Coproduction of Inclusion, Diversity and Equity / 2025)